What's the Best Webcam for the RV?

[holstein13]

I would love to have a webcam in my RV to keep an eye on things when I'm not there, but most appear to be designed for folks in stationary locations with tons of unlimited high-speed bandwidth. Does anyone know which webcams would work for our purposes?

I want a webcam that keeps the video on an SD card and doesn't communicate much with the internet unless I initiate a connection.

I get how that's not ideal from a security perspective because a thief could steal the webcam along with any incriminating video, but we don't really have a choice. We simply don't have the bandwidth for an always on and always streaming camera. Besides, I'm not that worried about thieves. If I put my coach in the shop, I'd like to know when and how they worked on it. I don't see myself using this thing daily. Just under special circumstances.

Any ideas?

[holstein13]

RCMAN46 wrote:
I just got a Arlo Go .

After two weeks of testing I think it may fit your need.

Google it and see what you think.

That looks like a very cool solution. Thanks for the suggestion.

[RCMAN46]

I just got a Arlo Go .

After two weeks of testing I think it may fit your need.

Google it and see what you think.

[Tizi]

you can use an old iPhone with appropriate Apps to do this over cellular. Cell data is only used when activated. The one I use is called Presence.

[holstein13]

Thanks for the good suggestions so far. I'll look into them and any other suggestions forthcoming.

[ncscz]

Look at something similar to the Trivision Bullet Cam. I am using a Trivision and a Sharx. They both come with a MicoSD card - either 64 or 128 GB. They can be powered by 12VDC or 120AC. They do not require IP connection BUT they will use (wireless or wired) it if available. The recording can be images and/or video or you can live view (if you have a connection).

You can record on motion or by a schedule ,so you record at specific time or any combination. You can record to the card, or record and send via email, ftp account, http server or Dropbox account. The sending can be as they occur or at a fixed time or times.
1 Email alarm sending
2 Email periodic sending
3 FTP alarm sending
4 FTP periodic sending
5 HTTP alarm sending
6 HTTP periodic sending
7 Snapshot to storage on alarm
8 Snapshot to storage periodically
9 Record to storage on alarm
10 Record to storage continuously
11 Send files in storage to FTP server
12 Push notification

There many vendors with similar products. Some of the common ones are Hikvision, Foscam, Sharx, Trivision, Stardot, Logitech. Prices will run starting at about $70 USD and go up from there.

[D_E_Bishop]

I think there are quite a few ways of doing what you want but without shopping around, I think they will very expensive and all of them require electricity so if your not plugged in or have significant solar, they may not work.

I bought a security system which I believe will do what you want but, it is a home system and uses a lot of power and does require hook up to an off site cloud to store the videos. I guess it more sophisticated that I need because I don't even have a smart phone.

Fortunately for me I don't have to program it as I can barely understand the programming instructions and my eldest DD is a wiz at programming and rewriting the poorly translated instructions into something that my beleaguered 77 year old brain can digest.

You might want to Google security systems with off site monitoring and reading up on what's available.

[bcsdguy]

I bought a dash cam awhile back and found it very useful. In your situation, you could get an ac adapter and plug it into a wall outlet when on shore power. You can put a 32 gig card in it and record for several hours before it records over itself. Just another suggestion.

[Jay_Pat]

A little more than you asked for.
May be of some use for you.
You could just skip to 7:30 for the security camera part.
Security.
Pat

[SCVJeff]

I have no idea how chatty they are but the Foscams can be set to detect motion and then send a series of .jpegs via email. If you say you have some connectivity., mebbe this works